Not so Great American Roadtrip chugs along Route 66

A "Great American Road Trip" it wasn't, but last night's episode of the NBC reality show was pretty much what viewers have come to expect: not much of a compelling nature.

The Cootes family won yet another "King of the Road" challenge, the Faverey teens screeched at each other a lot from the back of the RV, the mostly dysfunctional families didn't work very well together on challenges that had very little to do with Route 66 or a road trip of any kind.

I've taken to recording the show, so that I can fast-forward through parts both boring (particularly the obvious product placements) and disgusting (last night's pie eating contest closeups). Reader Gil Potts wrote me last week that his favorite person on the show is Silvio DiSalvatore, "only because he can make the dumbest person in America feel like a genius!" And that was being kind.

Has the show done more to keep people off the road than on it? That's what this writer fears.